Located at Lake Tahoe, California, Sugar Bowl Academy is a fully accredited college preparatory high school for competitive skiers. It's a world-class ski academy for Alpine, Nordic and Freeride athletes.

BIG MOUNTAIN,
BIG AIR,
BIG STYLE,
BIG SAFETY.

 Take a few laps on the legendary terrain at Sugar Bowl Resort and it is immediately apparent why SBSTA Freeride alumni earn starts at IFSA World Juniors, make the Freeride World Tour, and star in Matchstick Productions and Warren Miller segments.  The combination of accessible and rowdy terrain paired with the student-athlete centered approach that guides our world-class staff builds strong skiers, and more importantly, strong and kind human beings.  Our coaching staff has unrivaled experience in the competitive freeride and freeski world, with personal and coaching involvement in the highest levels of the sport over the past 25 years. If you are passionate about working hard and creating an opportunity to excel through freeride skiing, Sugar Bowl Ski Team and Academy is the place to build that foundation.  Come visit us and let us help you build a plan to achieve your dreams on snow and in the classroom!


Individual Attention, Bombproof Skills

Our Freeride Program builds an individualized plan for each student-athlete that is specific to their goals and existing skill set.  We recognize that no shared program will effectively and concisely target what each individual needs to progress from rising big mountain skiers to experienced freeski competitors.  We employ an approach that is heavily supported by off-season training in the gym and at various facilities around the region to build bomb proof foundations. This base supports each member of our team throughout their season and junior career path.  On-snow training is bountiful and productive for our athletes, with six training days each week during the winter season, and numerous opportunities to train on-snow throughout the summer and fall.


SBSTA Freeride Disciplines

Freeride:

Our freeride team spends most of their time searching out the most technical and demanding terrain on the hill. The natural air features that pepper the Sugar Bowl training landscape deliver focus on improving style and technique. And we use the entire mountain to develop tactical and technical skills.

Freeski:

Most commonly known as park skiing, our growing freeski team will invest their time in Sugar Bowl’s constantly expanding terrain park, working from basic skills all the way to the most progressive tricks in the sport.  


Program Highlights

•12 SBSTA Freeriders competed at the 2023 North American Championships

•2 SBSTA Freeriders earned starts at the 2023 Freeride Junior World Championships

•58 Podium Appearances (Top 5) in 2023 from SBSTA freeriders

•SBSTA Freeride skied 17 resorts in 5 countries in 2022-23

•Over 120 coached days on snow in 2022-2023

•Coach to athlete ratio of 4:1

•75% of our full time coaches have coached at the Freeride Junior World Championships



OUR FREERIDE TRAINING INCLUDES:

  • Unique ski-in/ski-out access to 1,500 vertical feet, 1,700 acres and 13 lifts.

  • Midweek ski training without the masses of people

  • Regular workout sessions with certified Athletic Trainer

  • New and improved Halfpipe and Terrain park with over 50 new rail and box features

  • Woodard Tahoe Training

"There is a real sense of adventure on the freeride team. We take tricks that we learn on trampolines and transfer them to the slopes. We also get to explore challenging big-mountain lines."

— FREERIDE STUDENT